Social Web Knocking on the School Door

This summer I read an article in Adresseavisen ( Internett i skolen, 27.mai 2009) that flagged the use of the internet and social websites in teaching as a means to make school more interesting and motivating for students. The leader of a research and competence network for ITC in education, Morten Søby,claims that research proves that the use of these medias is highly motivating for struggling students and potential school drop-outs. He says that teachers are lagging behind and hesitate to recognize the fact that they need to take advantage of the media.Young people are already competent users of the social web, using Facebook and similar websites on a regular basis. Kjell Atle Halvorsen at NTNU states that social web offer endless didactical opportunities, and the teachers need to get a new perspective on how students learn and what they learn. Learning through digital means is a communicative and creative process, he says, and he challenges us not to teach the analogue way in a digital world. Although he lists several ways in which social web is used in school, research shows that it is not widely used and explored.

I believe it is important to find ways of motivating the students, and encouraging student creativity.I do think that social web in school offer the opportunity. It is not the magic wand, but an important tool not to be neglected.

So, how do we use the social web, the digital tools out there? Below is more or less the glog I thought I would make for my exam portfolio, but then I found it at Glogster and I could not have made a better one. This glog is really educational, and gives us a great introduction to the web 2.0 ways

Web 2.0 is a buzzword that we often hear but might not understand. This slide show gives us a thorough presentation of the term.



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The making of this portfolio